The present invention relates to semiconductor optoelectronic devices in general and, more particularly, to wavelength tunable surface emitting semiconductor lasers and filters.
Tunable vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL""s) and filters have recently generated considerable interest in the art. This is because these devices show great promise not only for increasing bandwidth during wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in fiber-optic communications, but also for use in switches, routers, highly compact spectroscopic interferometers, optical trans-receivers and numerous other applications.
More particularly, VCSEL""s are extremely attractive for integrated optoelectronic circuits. For one thing, they operate at a single longitudinal mode with a circular aperture, thereby providing efficient coupling to fibers. In addition, they are compact, and can be monolithically fabricated in large, dense arrays on a wafer-scale.
As a fixed wavelength light source, VCSEL""s have demonstrated limited application and functionality.
Some past effort has been directed towards achieving wavelength tuning in VCSEL""s by introducing refractive index changes with (1) temperature (see, for example, Berger, P. R., Dutta, N. K., Choquette, K. D., Hasnain, G., and Chand, N., xe2x80x9cMonolithically Peltier-cooled vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasersxe2x80x9d, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 117-119, 1991; and Chang-Hasnain, C. J., Harbison, J. P., Zah, C. E., Florez, L. T., and Andreadakis, N. C., xe2x80x9cContinuous wavelength tuning of two-electrode vertical cavity surface emitting lasersxe2x80x9d, Electron. Lett., Vol. 27, No. 11, pp. 1002-1003, 1991); or (2) carrier injection (see, for example, Gmachi, C., Kock, A., Rosenberger, M., Gornik, E., Micovic, M., and Walker, J. F., xe2x80x9cFrequency tuning of a double-heterojunction AlGaAs/GaAs-vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser by a serial integrated in-cavity modulator diodexe2x80x9d, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 219-221, 1993).
Both of these techniques provide a tuning range of roughly 10 nm; however, this is still considerably short of the several tens of nanometer tuning range which is necessary for bandwidth-hungry WDM and dense WDM applications.
In contrast, variation of the length of a Fabry-Perot cavity has been shown to be a viable technique for accomplishing wavelength tuning in VCSEL""s without affecting the laser gain medium. This can be achieved in surface emitting devices by the provision of a top mirror that can be translated relative to the bottom mirror by the application of an electrostatic field. This technique has been implemented in tunable Fabry-Perot devices such as (1) filters (see, for example, Larson, M. C., Pezeshki, B., and Harris, J. S., xe2x80x9cVertical coupled-cavity microinterferometer on GaAs with deformable-membrane top mirrorxe2x80x9d, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 7, pp. 382-384, 1995; and Tran, A. T. T. T., Lo, Y. H., Zhu, Z. H., Haronian, D., and Mozdy, E., xe2x80x9cSurface Micromachined Fabry-Perot Tunable Filterxe2x80x9d, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 393-395, 1996); (2) light emitting diodes (see, for example, Larson, M. C., and Harris, J. S., xe2x80x9cBroadly-tunable resonant-cavity light emissionxe2x80x9d, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 67, No. 5, pp. 590-592, 1995); and (3) VCSEL""s (see, for example, Wu, M. S., Vail, E. E., Li, G. S., Yuen, W., and Chang-Hasnain, C. J., xe2x80x9cTunable micromachined vertical-cavity surface emitting laserxe2x80x9d, Electronic Letters, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 1671-1672, 1995; and Larson, M. C., Massengale, A. R., and Harris, J. S., xe2x80x9cContinuously tunable micromachined vertical-cavity surface emitting laser with 18 nm wavelength rangexe2x80x9d, Electronic Letters, Vol. 32, No. 19, pp. 330-332, 1996).
In devices of this sort, the amount of deflection of the top mirror depends on a number of parameters, e.g., the length, width, thickness and Young""s modulus of the mirror-supporting arm. Although the aforementioned width, thickness and Young""s modulus of the mirror-supporting arm are generally fairly precisely controllable, the current fabrication techniques used in such devices generally provide very limited control over the exact length of the supporting arms. This results in significant performance variations from device-to-device and batch-to-batch.
The present invention provides the precise dimensional control necessary for realizing reproducible, tunable Fabry-Perot devices that are necessary for producing commercially usable tunable filters and VCSEL""s.
This patent application claims benefit of pending prior U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/068,931 filed Dec. 12, 1997 for MICROELECTROMECHANICALLY TUNABLE CONFOCAL VERTICAL CAVITY SURFACE EMITTING LASER VCSEL AND FABRY PEROT FILTER, which document is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention comprises a novel, microelectromechanically (MEM) tunable, confocal filter.
The present invention also comprises a novel, MEM tunable, confocal vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL).
The laser preferably utilizes post-growth control of strain in the quantum wells.
In addition, the present invention also comprises a novel technique for VCSEL/filter fabrication which provides the precise dimensional control necessary for mass producing reliable devices having predictable performance characteristics.
More particularly, the present invention provides a new technique for introducing appropriate strain into a thin, lattice-matched layer of laser active medium, i.e., in the quantum wells, after crystal growth has been effected. This is achieved by depositing distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR""s) on the laser active medium, wherein the distributed Bragg reflectors comprise carefully engineered, strained, dielectric multi-layer films. By carefully modifying the strain in the deposited DBR films, the strain and the gain properties of the quantum well regions can be optimized. In VCSEL""s, when quantum wells are under compressive strain, the differential gain of the laser increases, and threshold current density decreases, thereby dramatically improving the performance of the VCSEL""s. Tensile strain, on the other hand, has adverse effects on the lasing properties of VCSEL""s. Dielectric multi-layer combinations, such as silicon (Si) and aluminum-oxide (Al2O3), or Si and silicon-dioxide (SiO2), or Si and magnesium-oxide (MgO), or TiO2 and SiO2, can be deposited by means of ion-beam assisted electron-beam evaporation or ion-beam assisted ion-beam sputtering, with a controlled strain in the deposited films. By carefully controlling the ion-beam voltage and current, dielectric films with either tensile or compressive strain can be deposited, with the magnitude of the strain ranging from a few Kilo Pascal (KPa) to a few Giga Pascal (Gpa). These multi-layer dielectric films provide a multi-purpose function, i.e., they induce strain in the quantum wells, they provide optical feedback to the gain medium, and they efficiently remove heat from the active region, all of which are important aspects of creating commercially useful VCSEL""s, especially in the wavelength range of between about 1300 nm and about 1500 nm.
The present invention also includes another innovation for producing, via micromachining, a confocal cavity VCSEL that comprises a tunable cavity formed between a set of planar DBR""s and a set of curved DBR""s. Curvature in the DBR""s is achieved by the judicious introduction of an appropriate magnitude of strain in the deposited layers. By the creation of a confocal microcavity, the spatial mode and divergence of the laser mode can be controlled precisely so as to (a) produce single spatial modes by optically restricting the lasing domain in the gain region, and (b) manipulate the divergence angle of the VCSEL so as to optimize the coupling of generated light into a single mode fiber.
The fabrication techniques of the present invention provide extremely precise control of the physical dimensions of both the top DBR structure and the supporting structure, which is indispensable for achieving highly reproducible performance with inconsequential device-to-device variation.
Another aspect of the present invention is a confocal microelectromechanical tunable Fabry-Perot structure. When the gain region is left out of the foregoing confocal VCSEL structure, only the optical cavity remains, and the device acts as a confocal Fabry-Perot filter. The confocal nature of the short cavity (e.g., 0.2-10 micron) device allows efficient coupling of light (i) from an input single mode fiber to the device, and (ii) back out to a single mode output fiber.
Confocal tunable filter and VCSEL devices are depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. These devices operate at a single longitudinal mode over the entire bandwidth (e.g., 30-120 nm) of the gain medium, in the case of a VCSEL; and over a 100 nm tuning range, in the case of a filter.
As depicted in FIG. 1, the tunable Fabry-Perot filter device comprises (i) a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) with a curvature R, formed by high index contrast multi-layers atop a thin membrane (or tethers) of silicon nitride (Si3N4) or a thin metal film such as titanium-tungsten (TiW), wherein the membrane is supported at its perimeter by thicker metal posts, (ii) an air cavity formed by selective removal of a sacrificial layer, and (iii) a bottom set of dielectric DBR""s deposited in the substrate facing the top DBR.
In the case of a VCSEL, a gain medium, consisting of multiple quantum wells, is inserted in the air cavity as shown in FIG. 2. These VCSEL""s can be photo-pumped, or intra-cavity electrical interconnections can be made for current injection.
Of course, it is also to be appreciated that the tunable filter, and/or the tunable VCSEL, can be formed with a top distributed Bragg reflector having a planar configuration, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The following is a list of some technological breakthroughs resulting from the present invention.
Since, in a VCSEL, the resonant optical mode interacts with an extremely small volume of gain medium, it is imperative that the gain medium provide maximum differential gain, while the DBR""s provide maximum feedback and the least thermal resistance possible.
Although using compressively strained multiple quantum wells can provide the maximum possible gain, there is a limitation on the maximum number of strained quantum wells that can be grown without generating crystalline defects.
A solution to this problem is to grow strain-compensated multiple quantum wells. In practice, however, this is difficult and costly. Although GaAs/GaAlAs-based VCSEL""s show maturity, the presently preferred material system for long wavelength (e.g., 1300 nm and 1500 nm) lasers is InP/InGaAsP-based, and much improvement upon this material system remains to be made.
Since the maximum index contrast between InP and InGaAsP is only about 0.2, a large number of quarter-wave stacks are required in order to provide sufficient feedback. This, however, causes significant resistive losses in the device, and an unacceptable degree of thermal bottleneck. In addition, the low index-contrast also results in relatively narrow bandwidth mirrors, thereby placing a severe constraint on the accuracy of the mirror thickness.
The present device may consist of an InGaAsP/InGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW), with a dielectric DBR on top and a dielectric DBR between the MQW and the substrate. See, for example, FIG. 5, which illustrates a fixed wavelength VCSEL. If desired, the fixed wavelength VCSEL may have a curved top distributed Braff reflector. Both DBR""s are deposited by vacuum deposition techniques.
As summarized below, the present invention provides a solution to all of the foregoing problems, simultaneously, with implications of significant cost reduction and high manufacturing yield.
1. Deposited DBR""s can externally alter the strain in the quantum well regions of the MQW, thereby modifying the gain coefficient, threshold current and slope-efficiency. By controlling the strain of the deposited DBR, the strain in the quantum wells, and therefore the lasing properties of the VCSEL, can be optimized. Post crystal-growth modification of strain in the quantum wells relieves the constraint of devising expensive and difficult strain-compensation techniques employed in epitaxial crystal growth (MBE or MOCVD).
2. In epitaxially grown monolithic VCSEL""s, thickness variations across the wafer cause lasing wavelength variations, resulting in poor yield. Since the index contrast between Si and Al2O3 is relatively high (i.e., about 2.8), with only four pairs of DBR""s, over 99.9% reflectivity can be achieved over a large bandwidth (e.g., 500 nm). As a result, a Fabry-Perot cavity formed by these DBR""s creates a high-Q cavity with sufficient feedback. Since the mirrors are broad band, the stopgap of the mirror can easily straddle over 100 nm of the gain spectrum. Any thickness variations in the active layer, and/or in the cladding thickness over the wafer, can be compensated for by depositing phase-compensating layers of dielectric films before depositing the final DBR mirror. This allows harvesting most of the wafer for the desired wavelength of emission. The high reflectivity of the DBR mirrors also helps to lower threshold conditions.
3. Dielectric mirrors formed by materials such as Si and Al2O3 or MgO have a very high thermal conductivity, thereby providing for efficient removal of heat from the active region. In addition, only a few pairs of DBR""s are required; hence, the thermal path to the heat sink is shorter in the present invention than in traditional semiconductor DBR""s, thereby adding to the efficient heat removal process.
A schematic diagram of the steps used in fabricating a novel wavelength tunable VCSEL based on the present invention is shown in FIG. 4. The device comprises bottom DBR""s consisting of high index-contrast dielectric pairs such as Si/Al2O3, Si/SiO2, Si/MgO, or TiO2/SiO2, along with selectively-deposited top DBR mirrors, with an air-cavity and an active medium embedded in the Fabry-Perot cavity formed by the two DBR""s.
The present invention also accommodates a hybrid mirror system such as bottom epitaxially grown DBR""s and top deposited DBR""s.
The top DBR resides on a thin, supporting membrane or multiple tether structure made of Si3N4 or metal (TiW) that is supported at its perimeter by a thicker metal support (see FIGS. 6A-6C). This forms a trampoline type of structure. In the case of a circular membrane structure, radially extending openings in the Si3N4 or metal film (TiW) are used for selectively removing an underlying sacrificial layer during the top DBR release process, as will be discussed further below.
By applying an appropriate voltage across this membrane and the bottom DBR""s, the trampoline structure, along with the top mirror, can be translated toward, and away from, the bottom DBR so as to tune the laser emission. Since the DBR""s are broad band, tuning is possible over the entire bandwidth of the laser gain spectrum, which is nominally about 60 nm.
One of the important features of the present invention is that the new fabrication process provides precise control over the lateral dimensions of the trampoline structure and the air-cavity length, both of which are important for the consistent manufacturing of substantially identical devices. This is made possible in the present invention by allowing the sacrificial layer to act as a die in order to define the lateral dimensions of the trampoline structure and the vertical dimension of the air-cavity. As a result, the possible ill effects of uncontrolled dimensions, ensuing during the selective removal of the sacrificial layer, are effectively eliminated.
In addition, the new devices are small and compact (approximately 500 xcexcmxc3x97500 xcexcm), thereby allowing arrays thereof to be manufactured and coupled to fibers.
As shown in FIG. 3, the tunable Fabry-Perot filter is obtained by omitting the quantum well gain material from the above-described VCSEL structure.
High index-contrast DBR stacks provide broad bandwidth (e.g., 500 nm); hence, for a lambda-cavity, the Fabry-Perot resonance can be tuned over the entire bandwidth of the DBR""s. Since the reflectivity of the DBR""s is high, an extremely narrow (sub-Angstrom) linewidth is attainable.
Tuning speed in these devices is on the order of microseconds, making them one of the fastest tunable filters, with extremely high spectral resolution. These devices are also easily mass-produced using standard semiconductor fabrication techniques, thereby making them affordable for consumer products.
The MEM tunable Fabry-Perot filter with confocal cavity is a highly innovative resonator design that comprises an air cavity between a first set of distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR""s) that are planar and a second set of DBR""s having a finite radius of curvature. These two sets of DBR""s form a confocal cavity as shown in FIG. 1.
One innovation of this design is the fact that the curvature of one of the mirrors creates a micro-resonator that can sustain Hermite Gaussian modes. As described below, by introduction of appropriate curvature in the top mirror, coupling of light from a standard single mode fiber into and out of the device can be simplified by avoiding the use of lenses that are otherwise necessary.
It is well known that the Rayleigh range, z0, which defines the distance at which the wave front is most curved, is related to mirror curvature, R, and cavity length, d, by the equation z0=[(Rxe2x88x92d)/d]xc2xd (xe2x80x9cEquation 1xe2x80x9d). For instance, a resonator with a cavity length of 1.5 microns, and a radius of curvature of 1.5 millimeter for the curved DBR""s, leads to a z0 value of 150 microns, and to a fundamental mode beam waist, W0, of 8.5 microns at a wavelength, xcex, of 1.5 microns, according to the relationship W0=(z0xcex/xcfx80)xc2xd (xe2x80x9cEquation 2xe2x80x9d). Since the value of the mode size at position z is given by the equation W(z)=W0[1+(z/z0)2]xc2xd (xe2x80x9cEquation 3xe2x80x9d), and since z0 is approximately a hundred times larger than the cavity length, the mode size remains virtually the same over the length of the cavity. Consequently, light from a 9-micron-core, single-mode fiber on the input side can excite this fundamental mode, and the transmitted single mode beam can be efficiently coupled to a single-mode fiber. As such, by curving the mirror, the mode spot size can be adjusted to match that of a single mode fiber without requiring a lens. The trade off is, however, that in this case the fiber has to be positioned within 0.5 micron (in the lateral direction) with respect to the optical axis of the cavity in order to avoid exciting undesirable higher order Hermite-Gaussian modes. In order to improve the alignment tolerance of the coupling fiber, a thermally expanded core fiber with mode size of 20-50 microns can be used in conjunction with mirrors with appropriately reduced curvature. The curvature R of the mirror is adjusted based on Equations 1-3 above to match the mode size W0 of the thermally expanded core fiber. Because of the larger size of the Gaussian mode, the lateral positioning of the fiber is relaxed.
This design is distinctly different from the single-crystal, parallel mirror resonator design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,262, issued Apr. 25, 1989 to Stephen R. Mallinson.
The processing steps for the fabrication of a novel MEM tunable filter with a confocal cavity of the present invention are similar to those utilized in the fabrication of a novel planar cavity tunable filter/VCSEL of the present invention. A significant difference is in the deposition of the curved DBR""s. Control of the magnitude and type of strain in the deposited multilayer dielectric stack of DBR""s, and the supporting thin silicon-nitride membrane, is carefully engineered so as to achieve the desired mirror curvature. The magnitude and the type of strain (tensile or compressive) is introduced in these films by the judicious choice of deposition parameters, such as the ratio of the gas mixtures of silane (SiH4) and ammonia (NH4), the total pressure of the gases used, and the magnitude of RF power used. The resulting stress gradient between the tensile strain silicon-nitride membrane and the compressively strained dielectric mirror stacks results in a concave DBR. Further control of the curvature of the top DBR can be achieved by introducing a stress gradient within the mirror layers by a gradual change of temperature and/or deposition voltage. Alternative methods for introducing the desired stress gradient within the mirror layers include the use of a secondary ion source to selectively modify the stress within each layer of the mirror by varying the current or voltage. In one example, a silicon nitride layer of 0.5 micron thickness, with 100 MPa of tensile stress, was deposited by PECVD, and the top mirror was deposited at 100xc2x0 C. using ion-beam sputtering at 700V. The resulting mirror curvature of approximately 1 mm was achieved following removal of the sacrificial layer. Furthermore, varying the temperature of the substrate during the mirror deposition from room temperature to 120xc2x0 C. resulted in a further stress gradient in the mirror layers, decreasing the mirror curvature to 0.75 mm.
Akin to the confocal-cavity tunable filter (FIG. 1), the innovative micro-cavity design using the confocal resonator scheme also provides a stable fundamental spatial mode in a MEM tunable VCSEL. More particularly, in the case of tunable VCSEL""s, the gain medium resides inside the Fabry-Perot cavity defined by a set of planar DBR""s and a set of movable curved DBR""s, as shown in FIG. 2. Excitation of the gain medium by the fundamental mode leads to laser emission of a single, circular spatial mode. As a result, lateral optical mode confinement arises naturally, without having to form a lateral waveguide. This results in highly efficient VCSEL""s.
The confocal cavity scheme is equally applicable to a fixed wavelength VCSEL, as shown in FIG. 5. As explained previously, the fundamental spatial mode in the fixed wavelength VCSEL provides a stable lateral optical confinement, and leads to a single mode laser emission.
Currently, there are fixed-wavelength VCSEL""s commercially available below 1.0 xcexcm.
There are no tunable VCSEL""s or MEM tunable Fabry-Perot filters commercially available at this time.
The only commercially available tunable filters rely on piezoelectric drivers with a complex feedback system (Queensgate Instruments, England), or on the use of bi-refringent materials sandwiched between cross-polarizers (Cambridge Research Instruments, Massachusetts, using liquid crystals).
Piezoelectric tunable filters have a resolution of about 0.1 nm, with a 50 nm tuning range, but they also require high voltage for operation.
Liquid crystal-based filters can exhibit better resolution, but at the expense of low efficiency, e.g., as low as 99.0%.
The fabrication of the two aforementioned systems is labor-intensive, and thus costly. For example, the top-of-the-line model offered by Queensgate Instruments costs more than $10,000. Such high cost, combined with the bulkiness of these systems, make them unrealistic for most applications. Specifically, in applications such as future communications networks that will deliver voice, video, data and upstream communications to consumers, all through a single optical fiber cable, very low cost, compact filters and laser sources are needed. It is believed that the feasibility of harnessing optical fiber cable bandwidths on a broad scale will hinge upon the availability of compact, low cost devices such as the devices of the present invention.
There has been some past effort towards realizing this goal. This effort has been confined to a small research community, and has resulted in reports of tunable LED""s, VCSEL""s and MEM tunable Fabry-Perot filters.
For example, Larson et al. have published results on (1) a GaAs-based tunable filter (see, for example, Larson, M. C., Pezeshki, B., and Harris, J. S., xe2x80x9cVertical coupled-cavity microinterferometer on GaAs with deformable-membrane top mirrorxe2x80x9d, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 7, pp. 382-384, 1995); (2) an LED (see, for example, Larson, M. C., and Harris, J. S., xe2x80x9cBroadly-tunable resonant-cavity light emissionxe2x80x9d, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 67, No. 5, pp. 590-592, 1995); and (3) a VCSEL (see, for example, Larson, M. C., Massengale, A. R., and Harris, J. S., xe2x80x9cContinuously tunable micromachined vertical-cavity surface emitting laser with 18 nm wavelength rangexe2x80x9d, Electronic Letters, Vol. 32, No. 19, pp. 330-332, 1996).
These results indicate that Larson et al. used GaAs/AlAs for bottom DBR""s, and a gold-coated silicon-nitride membrane as the top mirror. In all of the foregoing Larson et al. devices, the top mirror release is accomplished by selectively wet-etching an underlying sacrificial layer of GaAlAs with hydrochloric acid. Since this technique provides no controlled way of undercutting, the length of the support structure for the top mirror is not well defined from device to device. Furthermore, since the top mirror in Larson et al. has lower bandwidth and reflectivity than the dielectric DBR""s of the present invention, the tuning range of the devices of Larson et al. is limited, and their spectral linewidth is broader than that provided by the present invention.
Similarly, Tran et al. have shown (1) a tunable Fabry-Perot filter (see, for example, Tran, A. T. T. T., Lo, Y. H., Zhu, Z. H., Haronian, D., and Mozdy, E., xe2x80x9cSurface Micromachined Fabry-Perot Tunable Filterxe2x80x9d, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 393-395, 1996); and (2) an LED (see, for example, Christenson, G. L., Tran, A. T. T., Zhu, Z. H., Lo, Y. H., Hong, M., Mannaerts, J. P., and Bhat, R., xe2x80x9cLong-Wavelength Resonant Vertical-Cavity LED/Photodetector with a 75-nm Tuning Rangexe2x80x9d, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 725-727, 1997); the aforementioned filter and LED using polyimide as the sacrificial layer. This method suffers from the same lack of control over precise length fabrication. In addition, polyimide is not a stable material for making a robust device, because aging tends to degrade the stability of the cavity""s length.
A tunable filter (see, for example, Vail, E. C., Wu, M. S., Li G. S., Eng, L. and Chang-Hasnain, C. J., xe2x80x9cGaAs micromachined widely tunable Fabry-Perot filtersxe2x80x9d, Electronic Letters, Vol. 31, pp. 228-229, 1995) and a VCSEL (see, for example, Vail, E. C., Li, G. S., Yuen, W. and Chang-Hasnain, C. J., xe2x80x9cHigh performance micromechanical tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasersxe2x80x9d, Electronic Letters, Vol. 32, No. 20, pp. 1888-1889, 1996) also have been reported by Vail et al. The Vail et al. devices use GaAs/AlAs for the top and bottom DBR""s, with a GaAs sacrificial layer for top DBR release. Although Vail et al. use a dry-etching technique to selectively remove the sacrificial GaAs layer, precise control of the top mirror length is still not feasible.
The present invention is distinct from the aforementioned devices in the following aspects, among others:
1. the present invention provides a precise method for defining the lateral dimensions of the top mirror support and the cavity length by deposited supporting posts;
2. the present invention provides an optimized control of the VCSEL gain properties by control of the strain in the deposited DBR; and
3. the confocal design of the VCSEL structure allows single spatial modes, lower threshold and efficient coupling into a single mode fiber.